Haegler Carus mansion in Peru, IL
The Hegeler Carus Mansion, located at 1307 Seventh Street in La Salle, Illinois is one of the Midwest’s great Second Empire structures. Completed in 1876 for Edward C. Hegeler, a partner in the nearby Matthiessen Hegeler Zinc Company, the mansion was designed in 1874 by noted Chicago architect William W. Boyington. The mansion is now owned and operated by the Hegeler Carus Foundation, and is open to the public. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007.
Haegler made his fortune in the zinc industry. They are still making zinc-coated nails in LaSalle. He built a mansion close to his factory as seen below. This is the south side.
South side with the porches missing
My mother-in-law has lived in LaSalle for the past 50 years so we’ve gone there often and have been following the mansion . We never saw it with its original porch intact. Below is what we saw for 40 years. This is the east side with the new porch.
I have a woodworking business that specializes in old house porches so I called the guy wanting to learn from him. In talking I mentioned that I use treated lumber . He literally laughed at me on the phone. He said he wouldn’t use treated lumber for his doghouse I don’t know what kind of wood he used but I think he put some kind of epoxy coating on feeling that would protect it. I doubt he did the end grain and the owners didn’t keep it caulked and painted . It all rotted away in less than 10 years. Even the stairs rotted away. They removed all of the rotting porch. I’ll bet now that he wishes he had used treated lumber
Even the ceiling of the porch rotted. I can’t imagine how he did not have an adequate roof coating on it,
There is still an original part of the porch on the north side as seen below:
Click here to view interior pictures
